


The Undelivered Letters

by stonycherik



Category: The Avengers (Marvel Movies), The Avengers (Marvel) - All Media Types
Genre: Canon Divergence - Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Canon Divergence - Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Letters, M/M, Multi, Post-Avengers: Endgame (Movie), Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Post-Civil War, Steve Rogers Needs a Hug, Tony Stark Needs a Hug
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-03-25
Updated: 2020-03-25
Packaged: 2021-02-28 20:40:17
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,225
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23313274
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/stonycherik/pseuds/stonycherik
Summary: It was a warm, melancholic evening, and three people finally got to read the letters they should’ve read a long time ago, to a person. Now that they're gone, it's better to read it, even alone.
Relationships: James "Bucky" Barnes & Steve Rogers, James "Bucky" Barnes/Sam Wilson, Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Kudos: 8





	The Undelivered Letters

**Author's Note:**

> This is my first fic in this fandom and ao3 . I apologize for any mistakes. Thank you for reading!

Steve had a thing for a brown jacket, no matter how he aged. Despite his all-american suit giving him all the glory, there was something about the brown jacket that truthfully spoke loudly about him: the dying Brooklyn boy who was given a second chance through Project Rebirth. 

Steve loved his brown jacket, especially when he got to use it with the love of his life, Tony Stark. 

Of course Tony used to love him, in it, too. The Stark man’s eyes used to always lit brightly every time he caught Steve in his glorious suit. Yes, they fucked in it too, a lot, because not only Steve, Tony had a thing for the brown jacket too. 

Oh Lord, Steve wished he could contain his enormous love for Tony Stark.

Nevertheless, perhaps, it was his curse. When he was given the rebirth serum, he was given a new life, for almost everything but one: he never got to taste his happy ending.

Not with Bucky, his best friend. Not with Peggy, his first love. 

He hoped so dearly that Tony would break those for him. 

Unfortunately, many curse was permanent, no?

It was weird to recall the incidents. He understood everyone who was blaming him, calling him names. Nobody truly cared anyway.

Who would bother to listen to his truth?

That Steve’s heart was crushed as he jammed the shield toward the glowing arc reactor that used to lull him in the nightmares, in the Siberian bunker.

That Steve’s heart was torn when he had to live as a fugitive, whilst bearing the undying hatred (and misunderstanding) Tony was openly addressing him: Tony Stark was always second to anyone, including Steve Rogers (when he already put a hope on him, that Steve would never treated him so).

That Steve’s heart was broken as the first thing his love did to him post horrific space travel was accusing him as a liar.

And as if it wasn’t enough, as Steve thought he just saw a spark of hope for a remedy, he got to see the love of his life, died before his eyes. He, the great Captain America, was just standing there, like an idiot, not even running and kissing him goodbye. 

So today, after the quantum realm post-retravelled, with his wrinkly hands, Steve fished out the now turning-yellow letters he should have read loudly toward the love of his life, long, long time ago.

_Dear Tony,_

_When I arrived in this life, 70 years later, I seriously believed it’s time for me to give up._

_Then I found you, the pain-in-the-ass Stark. Man, Tony, I truly avoided any hints that I was interested in you. For goodness sake, your father was my best friend! It was very creepy. Besides, honestly, you behaved like shits._

_Then we had countless missions together. You let me bypass your layers and layers of emotions, even if they were all mostly subliminal or accidental. Slowly, those turned into conscious choices: you open yourself up to me, even when I didn’t ask you to. You let me open to you too._

_That night, in between New Year’s Eve drunken talk and I kissed you, I was prepared to have you kick me out of the tower, for I seriously thought I had forced my way into you._

_I felt for once life was on my side, when you kissed me back, and the rest goes into the files. Then our love stories, our fights, our ups and downs, our loathes on each other, in all those, we always had a way to each other, home._

_So, again, I took my chances: I proposed. I couldn’t believe you agreed to marry me. Across the universe, across all the possibilities, I never had the gut to think that the great Tony Stark would ever want to spend a life with me. Never, Tony. I was too mediocre, compared to all of your brilliance._

_Then Bucky happened. Yes, that was how sucked I was, using other people as the reason for my own indecisiveness._

_I thought, Tony, that you would understand. Clearly you did. You did tolerate me, like you always did: you believed it wasn’t Bucky’s mistake._

_Still, I shouldn’t have lied to you. Clearly, I was being selfish. I protected my own ego, to have you see me still as the great love of your life. I had written that in the other letter, the one I hoped you had read._

_Tony, when you left, there were parts of me gone, and I could never retrieve them back. I was a coward, putting you second to my oath to the country, to the Avengers, or simply to protect innocent people._

_I desperately wanted to protect many, that I lost the only one I ever truly had in life, you._

_(I added this section as we were working on the quantum realm machine)_

_Now, that I had a chance, even though you’re happily married with a child, I wanted to say, I’m sorry, Tony, and I am genuinely happy for you._

_So, here I was. Will you forgive me?_

_(This part was added after you died, and throughout my re-travels in the quantum)_

_Clearly, the cowardness grew into me. Again, I apologized like a mistake I never got to learn: putting the message for you off, until it was too late._

_Now that you’re gone, what does my life mean anymore? I could always ‘innocently’ bump into you in every other universe in the timeline, ‘retrieving you back to my arms.’ Yet, I wouldn’t be fair to the other me, or the other you along the quantum._

_Tony, I’m dying of age, obviously. Thank God, I finally got to leave this misery, and secretly wished I could see you again._

_But even when I crossed the light, saw you again, would I ever be able to talk to you, or be given the second chance?_

_Tony, why couldn’t I stop loving you? I used to think that you were the antidote to my curse of never having my true love with me. Then I found out how corny it was, to use people serving my purpose. Perhaps, that was why I was never destined for you: because I was a selfish man that could never love you right._

_Tony, you used to adore me. For once, I wanted to say, you were wrong._

_Captain America perhaps was great, the All-American hero. But Steven Grant Rogers? He was born a coward, and he died a coward too._

_He could save everyone, but never the love of his life. Tony, this is my final atonement to you._

_If only I was strong enough to choose you over everything, you perhaps wouldn’t have to die. You should have got the life with your family, even if it wasn’t me you embraced._

_Tony, I love you. Always do, always will. I’m sorry._

_S.R ___

__

__As Steve heard a footsteps, he knew someone was coming. From the way the steps carried, he remembered it by heart: Sam Wilson._ _

__

__“Steve, do you want to talk about her?”_ _

__

__Steve smiled, although he died inside, “No. I don’t think I will.”_ _

__

__How could he tell Sam it was the wedding ring he never got to use, matching with Tony’s?_ _

__

___The ring Tony Stark definitely had forgotten long ago, Steve believed._ __


End file.
